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NEWSLETTER ISSN 1834-4259 NO. 145. NOVEMBER 2012

This research was supported in part by an MSA Mollusc Research Grant.

Thersites mitchellae Cox, 1864, in the family Camaenidae, is a regionally endemic Australian land snail that has declined in distribution and abundance due to clearing of much of its former habitat for coastal development. The species occurs in north-eastern New South Wales and is listed as endangered under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (TSC Act), and critically endangered under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiver-sity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). This was the first species for which a critical habitat determination was made under the TSC Act. Despite the conserva-tion status of T. mitchellae many aspects of its ecology are unknown.

As part of a broader research project for my PhD, (see MSA Newsletter No. 140 March 2011) we have used sophisticated techniques in capture-recapture and occupancy studies to estimate tempo-rary emigration and detection probability of this elu-sive snail. The models allow for the inclusion of sampling and habitat covariates that could affect ei-ther the detection probability or the probability of

occupancy. These techniques require multiple sur-veys and detect but do not account for temporary emigration. Along with my supervisory team, we considered that the information from radio-telemetry studies might be useful in accounting for the temporary emigration detected by these models.

Radio-telemetry theoretically allows 100% de-tection rates and can provide a history of detailed movements that is not possible with capture-recapture and occupancy studies. The technique can also be used to locate individuals that are temporarily unavailable for capture in cryptic habitats. The po-tential of radio-telemetry for investigating land snail movement was noted over 20 years ago but the weight and dimensions of transmitters available then may have influenced snail behaviour. Recent techni-cal advances have resulted in miniaturization of transmitters and provide an acceptable transmitter/body weight ratio for monitoring land snails.

The main aim of the radio-telemetry study was to determine habitat use and movement patterns, which are viewed as relevant to the conservation of the species. The potential for using radio-telemetry to augment capture-recapture studies, occupancy-based habitat models, and opportunistic search methods for land snails is also investigated.

The study was located in a patch of remnant habitat of approximately 3 hectares typical of coastal lowland habitat where T. mitchellae has been histori-cally recorded. Snails were collected from across each of three different habitats at the study site 24 hours prior to the commencement of tracking. Single stage transmitters with a weight of 0.4 g were at-tached to the snail shell with micropore tape, with the total weight of the transmitter and tape being < 4% of the body weight of the smallest tracked snail.

A total of 636 location fixes for eleven snails was recorded on twelve nights over an 18 day pe-riod. Overall, the results show that the probability of moving on a night, and the nightly distance moved

Radio-tracking Mitchell’s Rainforest Snail Jonathan Parkyn, Southern Cross University

Email: jonathan.parkyn@scu.edu.au

ACN 067 894848

Thersites mitchellae . Photo: Jonathan Parkyn

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once active, both increase with increasing humidity. Whilst individuals did not return to the same retreat site location with any reliability there is evidence of active and frequent selection of particular retreat site types within selected habitats. Further, we found significant association between the selection of re-treat site types and the initial habitat in which the individuals were located.

Within the general habitats of wetland, littoral rainforest, and palm forest we have identified two important areas: (1) the ecotone between the wetland and rainforest, and (2) palm forest on slightly ele-vated ground. Snails showed a clear preference for sedge diurnal retreat sites in the rainforest and wet-land, and fallen fronds in the palm forest. Thus, our findings have relevance to guidelines for survey, and

recovery planning. The species is currently restricted

to isolated relict populations in remnant areas of

habitat that remain at risk from clearing. Our find-ings will refine survey guidelines, and assist in field assessment including provision of recommendations to avoid or minimize impacts to these habitats. The discovery of frequent use of particular retreat site types within selected habitats can guide proposals for planting and embellishment of habitat for restora-tion. Acknowledgements: The following people and organisations have provided valuable research assis-tance: Dr Lyndon Brooks, Dr David Newell, Dr Al-ison Specht, Dr John Stanisic, Byron at Byron Resort and Spa, Malacological Society of Australasia, Tweed Shire Council.

Thersites mitchellae . (From p. 1)

Society information President: Rachel Przeslawski Vice President Kirsten Berkendorff Treasurer Don Colgan Secretary Carmel McDougall Journal editor Winston Ponder Newsletter editor Vacant Council members Shane Penny Rosemary Golding

All enquiries and orders should be sent to the Secre-tary, Carmel McDougall, at c.mcdougall@uq.edu.au

The Society’s Newsletter and the journal Molluscan Research, published three times a year, are sent to all members.

Membership fees 2012 Includes Molluscan Research and MSA Newsletter and discounted registration at Molluscs 2012 Ordinary members (Aust., Asia, W.Pacific) $A70 Ordinary members (Rest of the world) $A100 Extra family member $A5 Affiliate organization $A100 Student member $A45

Membership fees are preferably paid via the website www.malsocaus.org. To pay by paper, send to Mala-cological Society of Australasia, c/o Dr. Don Colgan, Australian Museum, 6 College St, Sydney, NSW 2010.

Web Site www.malsocaus.org

Victorian Branch

Secretary Michael Lyons, 19 Banksia Street, Black-burn, VIC 3130. Phone (03) 9894 1526. (Michael _lyons1@bigpond.com). Meetings at the Melbourne Camera Club, cnr. Dorcas and Farrars Streets, South Melbourne, on the third Monday of each month. No meeting in January, July or December.

Queensland Branch

Meetings are held at 6:30 pm on the last Tuesday of each month except December at the TLC Building, 20 Peel Street, South Brisbane,. Correspondence: Ma-lacological Society of Australasia, Queensland Branch, PO Box 15064, City East, QLD 4002. Phone (07) 3848 9270 (H) or email msaqld@powerup.com.au

NSW Branch

NSW Branch meetings are held at 2 pm on the fourth Saturday of each month at the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club, 117 Ryedale Rd, West Ryde, Sydney. Contact Steve Dean, email steve@easy.com.au

Newsletter

Guest Editor of this issue: Carmel McDougall School of Biological Sciences, Goddard Building, Mansfield Place, The University of Queensland Brisbane QLD 4072

Layout: Des Beechey, Malacology Department, Aus-tralian Museum, 6 College St, Sydney, NSW 2010.

This publication is not deemed to be valid for taxo-nomic purposes (See article 8b in International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 3rd Edition (1985).

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While sorting through some frozen samples collected by the CSIRO seabed survey in early 2008 a strange gastropod emerged from a tangle of shell grit and red gorgonian. The particular sample was dredged from approximately 25 km west of Cape Van Diemen, Mornington Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Queensland (Lat 16° 30.845´, Long 139° 52.15´) in late May 2003 at a depth of approxi-mately 50-60 metres. The specimen was a complete but sadly animal-free shell, measuring 18mm in maximum diameter. Shape-wise, with its expansive peripheral keel, it superficially resembled a com-pressed xenophorid but there was no evidence of any attached shell pieces or rock fragments and the sculpture sug-gested a likely connection with the Vitrinellidae (Tornidae). And so Darryl Potter and I were getting excited that possibly here was a species new to sci-ence and certainly new to the Queen-sland Fauna. What could it be ? Some-what amusingly, the answer came when Des Beechey gave his talk on the ‘History of Australian Conchology and Malacology’ at the Australian Shell Show in March 2008. Early into the presenta-tion, Des projected an image of a Joyce Allan plate from one of Tom Iredale’s papers (1931). Clearly apparent, and rep-resented in considerable detail, was the ‘hopeful’ New sp ! Subsequent searching out of the 1931 paper in our library showed the specimen to be a very large example of Laciniorbis hedleyi Iredale, 1931 (type locality: off Murray Island, Torres Strait, Queensland). In that same paper, Iredale also described L. morti (type locality: Sydney Harbour). In 1897 Von Martens had created the genus Laciniorbis for one of his own species from New Guinea (Adeorbis fimbriatus) and interestingly he alludes to the super-ficial similarity to xenophorid shells in his generic description. Although L. fimbria-tus occurs in very deep water (732 m) both L. hedleyi and L. morti appear to be dwellers of relatively shallow water, at least based on available records. To my knowledge the animals of L. hedleyi and L. morti have never been seen or exam-

ined. We would be interested in hearing of any other records of L. hedleyi from Australia.

Reference:

Iredale, T. 1931. Australian Molluscan Notes No. 1. Records of the Australian Museum 201-235, pl XXII

Almost But Not Quite New – a Gastropod Tale John Healy and Darryl Potter

Biodiversity Program, Queensland Museum

Fig. 2. 1-3. Joyce Allan’s llustrations of Laciniorbis hedleyi Ire-

dale, 1931 (from Iredale, 1931). 4-6. Joyce Allan’s illustrations of

L. morti Iredale, 1931 (from Iredale, 1931)

Fig 1. 1. Dorsal view of Laciniorbis hedleyi Iredale, 1931 dredged

from approximately 25 km west of Cape Van Diemen, Mornington

Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Queensland (diameter 18mm)

(QMMO 80140). 2. Detail showing spiral sculpture of shell. 3.

Ventral view of specimen showing deep umbilicus and radially-

striated sculpture of frill and sinuate dorsal section of outer lip. 4.

Detail of aperture.

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9th

International Conference on Molluscan Shellfish Safety Sydney, 17-22 March 2013

AMSA’s Golden Jubilee Conference Gold Coast, 7-11 July 2013

World Congress of Malacology Azores, 21-28 July 2013

Molluscs 2012 - St Mary's College, University of Melbourne 3-6 December 2012

Registration for the society’s triennial conference is still open! Support your society and catch up on the latest malacological research by registering at www.molluscsociety.org. Presentation slots may still be available, please contact the conference organizers to enquire.

New Publications

Oyster Genome Published

Zhang et. al. 2012. The oyster genome reveals stress adaptation and complexity of shell formation. Nature 490: 49-54

The genome of the edible oyster, Crassostrea gigas, was published early last month. In order to over-come the difficulties in assembling a relatively large and repetitive genome from a species with high-level polymorphism, the authors developed a novel strategy, combining next-generation sequencing technology (which produces short reads) with a fos-mid-pooling approach to sequence a single oyster (itself produced by four generations of full-sib mat-ing). The authors also undertook extensive tran-scriptome sequencing and shell proteomics to pro-duce a comprehensive resource for understanding oyster biology.

One finding of particular interest is the expan-sion of heat shock protein 70 genes in this species – there are 88 copies of this gene in the C. gigas ge-nome. Other genes related to stress and immune responses are over-represented within the genome, suggesting that this species has undergone signifi-cant adaptation in response to living in the stressful intertidal zone.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species – Indo-Burma Region

The International Union for Conservation of Na-ture has recently published an assessment of 2,515 described freshwater species in the Indo-Burma re-gion, including 430 species of freshwater mollusc. 16.6% of these species are threatened, while there is insufficient data to determine the conservation status of approximately one-third of the species. The report identified areas of the Mekong catchment that are bio-diversity hotspots and are currently under threat due to proposed dam developments.

The report was the culmination of over two years of work by numerous researchers around the globe, including Frank Koehler of the Australian Museum. The report is available at www.iucn.org.

On the Red List –Brotia armata Photo: Frank Koehler

Forthcoming Conferences

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The triennial joint conference of the Australian Marine Science Association and New Zealand Ma-rine Science Society was held 1 – 5 July 2012 at Wrest Point in Hobart. The theme this year was ‘Marine Extremes and Everything In Between’ which included an expected heavy focus on climate change and ocean acidification, as well as deep sea ecology, polar processes, and extreme oceanographic events.

As usual, molluscs were a favourite case study organism in many of the presentations and featured in several symposia. In the ‘Early Life Stages and Environmental Extremes’ symposium, Maria Byrne gave an enthusiastic whirlwind keynote about her lab’s research on the effects of ocean acidification on fertilisation, embryos and larvae of echinoderms and molluscs. Nicole Phillips and Brendan Dunphy flew the flag for New Zealand molluscs with interesting and timely talks on climate change-related stress in encapsulated gastropod embryos and latitudinal comparisons of thermotolerance in green-lipped mussel larvae, respectively.

Another symposium with a malacological focus was ‘Marine Biotechnology and Bioproducts’. Géza Berecki gave a comprehensive summary of the dis-covery and synthesis of analgesic conotoxins from cone snails. David Rudd spoke about his PhD re-search in which he’s developed a new application of mass spectrometry to detect biologically active com-pounds in the whelk Dicathais orbita. Despite the highly technical topic, David continued the tradition of accessible and interesting presentations coming from the Benkendorff Mollusc lab.

In addition to the scientific program, delegates were treated to several functions including the antici-pated AMSA conference dinner in which marine-themed balloons graced the tables and high ceilings of the banquet hall – and later the hands, hair, and

feet of the delegates on the dancefloor. The highlight of the evening was the competition for the Sher-wood Award, given to the ‘best’ dancer over 40 years old.

As always with AMSA there was a huge range of topics from many disciplines, spanning oceanogra-phy, ecology, chemistry, as well as mathematics, ma-rine management and policy, and education. It’s this diversity of topics that makes AMSA such a popular conference for marine scientists and fosters many collaborations (or at least plans for collaborations!).

Abstracts of all oral and poster presentations can be found here: www.amsa.asn.au/conference/amsa-

nzmss2012_hobart

Conference Review—AMSA 2012 Rachel Przeslawski

President, Malacological Society of Australasia

Figuladra moves to Brisbane

Thora Whitehead of Chapel Hill, Brisbane, provided the accompanying photo of an immigrant to her garden. She noted that the last two years of overabundant rainfall had been good for this species, which is now found alive com-monly in several Brisbane suburban gardens. Thora thought it was Sphaerospira, but Mike Shea has identified it as a native Figularda, which has been introduced into Bris-bane over the last few decades and is now common as colonies in gardens. It comes from the Hervey Bay—Maryborough area, where it occurs in vine thickets and tropical train forests. Figuladra snail at Chappel Hill, Brisbane.

Photo: Trish Bray.

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From January 2013, Molluscan Research will be pub-lished by the Taylor and Francis Group (http://www.tandfonline.com/), a large international pub-lishing house with branches in many countries, in-cluding Australia. This move will give us a number of advantages including prepublication, greater visi-bility and online handling of manuscripts. We will also increase the number of issues per year from three to four and the number of pages per issue from 60 to 72. The new journal website will be up and running before the end of the year and will con-tain more details.

Members of The Malacological Society of Australasia and The Society for the Study of Molluscan Diver-sity will continue to receive the journal as part of their membership. Institutional subscribers should contact Taylor and Francis directly at jour-nals@tandf.com.au

On behalf of both societies, I would like to take this opportunity to thank June Zhang of Magnolia Press, Auckland, for her assistance and her many efforts in producing Molluscan Research since 2005.

Molluscan shells possess impressive mechanical properties that are of increasing interest to the fields of materials science and nanotechnology. The shell is an excellent example of the biofabrication of a highly complex and organised structure at nanoscale dimensions. The majority of the shell is composed of calcium carbonate tablets, while the remainder (approximately 5%) is made up of an organic matrix, secreted from the mantle tissue underlying the shell. This matrix is responsible for the control of calcium carbonate polymorph, for controlling the precise crystal microstructure, and for providing elasticity to the shell. As a result, molluscan shells have strength, toughness and stiffness far exceeding both that of calcium carbonate alone and that of the best syn-thetically produced materials. In order for these biomineralized materials to be replicated, we need a more in-depth understanding of how the mollusc builds its shell.

Within the last 6 years significant progress has been made toward characterising the genes and pro-teins that are components of the molluscan shell organic matrix. This has largely been the result of large-scale sequencing of genes expressed within the mantle, and the direct sequencing of fragments of proteins extracted from the shell itself. However, the fact that a gene is expressed in the mantle does not mean it is involved in shell formation, and direct protein sequencing does not identify all shell com-ponents. In addition, the role of each of these genes or proteins in shell synthesis is difficult to ascertain. Despite this, these datasets have formed the basis of several new insights into the mechanisms of shell formation.

Perhaps the most significant finding in this field within the past decade is that the organic com-

ponent of the shell is much more complex than originally thought; recent proteomic studies have shown that at least 311 proteins are present in the Lottia gigantea shell (Mann et al., 2012). It has also become evident that many of these proteins contain repetitive sequences that are rapidly evolving; the relevance of this is not understood. In addition, comparisons between the genes expressed in the mantle of a gastropod and bivalve found that only 10% of the genes expressed in the nacreous zone are shared, a surprising result that indicates that gastro-pod and bivalve nacre may have evolved independ-ently (Jackson et al., 2010). The diversity of the genes involved in shell formation certainly makes any gen-eralizations regarding the underlying mechanisms difficult.

Future work within the field must focus on identifying the core elements of the biomineralisa-tion pathway that lie beneath the genetic complexity. Perhaps the key lies within understanding the cell types that are responsible for shell formation, and the way in which they are specified during develop-ment. One particular challenge will be to identify the few differences among many that are responsible for the differences we see in shells between species. This could be achieved by studying molluscs that display particular polymorphisms in shell colour-ation or structure within the one species – if anyone knows of a potential candidate, I would be inter-ested to hear from you!

References:

d'Errico et al., (2005) J. Human. Evol. 48(1):3-24

Jackson et al., (2010) Mol. Biol. Evol. 27(3):591-608

Mann et al., (2012) Proteome Sci. 10:28

How do molluscs build their shells? Carmel McDougall (Secretary) Email: c.mcdougall@uq.edu.au

Molluscan Research is getting bigger and better

Winston Ponder, Managing Editor, Molluscan Research

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The Annual General meeting of the Society will be held as follows:

Date: Wednesday the 5th of December, 2012 Time: 4.00pm EDT Venue: St Mary’s College, 871 Swanston Street, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria (03 9349 9555)

Call for Agenda items Please forward any agenda items, nomination

forms or proxy forms to me via mail or email by the 23rd of November. Proxy forms will also be accepted if delivered in person at the venue prior to the meet-ing. Note that the AGM will immediately follow the triennial conference of the MSA (Molluscs 2012). At-tendance at the AGM is free for all MSA members regardless of whether they attend the conference.

Amendments to the Constitution At this meeting we will vote on revisions to the

status of state branches within the MSA. The pro-posed motion (following) is to facilitate the transfer of formal MSA Branches to Regional Affiliate (paid membership) or partner organisations:

All mention of MSA Branches as operational groups will be removed from the MSA Articles of Association, with the exception of Section 14 in which the historical importance of Branches is recognised. Where applicable, ‘Regional Af-filiates’ or ‘Regional Affiliates and partners’ will replace mention of Branches:

In Section 1.1 ‘Branch’, ‘Branch By-laws’, ‘Branch Committee’, ‘Branch President’, ‘Branch Member’, and ‘Branch Territory’ will be removed from the definitions.

In Section 1.2 the following definition will

be added: ‘”Partner” means an organisa-tion for which both the MSA and the part-ner have agreed to support each other’s activities and interests when possible. Partners are not Members and have no voting rights or other benefits of Member-ship.

In Section 2.11.1, ‘a Member’ will replace

‘a Branch’.

In Section 2.16.2, ‘the Regional Affiliate or

partner to which each member belongs (if any)’ will replace ’the Branch of which

each Member is a Branch Member (if any)’ .

In Section 3.2.1, ‘and meetings of Branch

Members of the member’s branch’ and ‘and to Branch Members of the member’s branch’ will be deleted.’

In Section 3.3.1, ‘or any meeting of the members of a Branch’ will be deleted.

In Section 4.2.2, ‘or any applicable branch

by-laws’ will be deleted. In Section 14, all clauses will be deleted. The following will be added: ‘Although Branches are not supported by the current Constitution, the historical and pivotal roles of Branches in the establishment, growth, and direction of the Society have been substantial.

During the transition of Branches to Regional

Affiliates or partners, all assets held by the Branch at the time of transfer will stay in the care of the Branch President to become assets of the organisation that succeeds the Branch. All Regional Affiliates or partners who have ten or more current MSA Members will be eligible for an annual rebate to be used solely to sup-port the activities of the Regional Affiliate or partner and not individuals. The MSA constitution can be found online at www.malsocaus.org/docs/MSA_constitution.pdf.

MSA Council Elections

Nominations are sought for MSA council positions (please use the following form, self nominations will be accepted). The following MSA council members will stand for re-election at the AGM:

Rachel Przeslawski (President)

Kirsten Benkendorff (Vice-President)

Don Colgan (Treasurer OR Membership Secre-tary, not both)

Carmel McDougall (Secretary)

Winston Ponder (Journal Editor)

Shane Penny (Website Administrator)

Rosemary Golding (councillor)

The following positions are vacant.

The Malacological Society of Australasia Annual General Meeting

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Membership Secretary or Treasurer

Newsletter Editor

Public Relations Officer

Councillor

If you cannot attend the meeting and would like to appoint a proxy, please complete the form pro-vided (a photocopy is suitable) and nominate a per-son who will be attending the meeting to vote on your behalf. If no suitable nominee is available, I as secretary can act as your proxy. Please contact me prior to the meeting to discuss your voting preferences. If you would like to receive a copy of the agenda for the meeting and proposed council nominees, please contact me by the 28th of November.

The meeting will be followed by the conference dinner in the Dining Room at St Mary’s College. AGM attendees are welcome to attend the confer-ence dinner (three course meal with beer and wine) at a cost of $88.00 per person. Please register your attendance by contacting Narelle Hall (realevents@ bipond.com) before Wednesday the 28th of No-vember. Carmel McDougall (Secretary) Email: c.mcdougall@uq.edu.au School of Biological Sciences Goddard Building, Mansfield Place The University of Queensland Brisbane QLD 4072

Nomination Form

For Council position of the Malacological Society of Australasia

Nominee: ______________________________________________________________ Position: ______________________________________________________________ Nominated by: ______________________ (name) ___________________ (Signature) Seconded by: ______________________ (name) ___________________ (Signature) Nominations may also be accepted by participants during the meeting

Proxy Form

I, _____________________________________________________________________ hereby appoint __________________________________________________________ as my true and lawful proxy to vote on my behalf at the Annual General meeting of the Malacological Society of Australasia to be held at St Mary’s College on the 5th of Decem-ber 2012. Signed: _____________________________________ Date: _____________________________________

Annual General Meeting (Cont)